Artadia Announces 2015 Houston Grantees

Artadia has announced the winners of the seventh cycle of Houston Artadia Awards: Lily Cox-Richard, Autumn Knight, JooYoung Choi, El Franco Lee II, and Charisse Weston. Artadia has implemented similar merit-based awards programs in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco since 1999.

The mayor of Houston, Annise D. Parker, stated in a release,

“For over a decade, the Artadia Awards have promoted engagement among the Houston arts community, strengthened the local creative economy, and offered vital financial resources to one of our city’s most valuable cultural assets — its artists. Artadia’s mission and work embody the commitment to a rich local culture that we seek to nurture through the Houston Arts and Cultural Plan. We are thankful to Artadia for their work to celebrate and fortify the city’s arts community, and for continuing to highlight Houston as a dynamic incubator of culture on a national stage.”

Cox-Richard and Knight will both receive prizes of $12,000, while JooYoung, Lee, and Weston will each receive $5,000.

The award was open to any visual artists living in Harris County, Texas, for more than two years.

A jury consisting of artist David Altmejd; Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum; and Claudia Schmuckli, director and chief curator at the University of Houston’s Blaffer Art Museum, chose ten finalists after a review of all 225 applicants. Lanka Tattersall, assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Los Angeles, joined the panel for the second round, during which the jury visited the studios of all ten finalists from November 18 to November 20.